The Daily Prophet's Unsung Heroes: Annie Thomas
by Lumos1995
Summary: In this month's installment of "Unsung Heroes," we at the Daily Prophet invite you to take a glimpse into the incredible and inspiring life of Annie Thomas. So, with no further adieu, sit back, relax, enjoy a nice cup of tea, and enter into the world of Annie Thomas, one of the first faces of the Squib's Rights Movement and the first squib to join the famed Order of the Phoenix.


Annie Thomas

In this month's installment of "Unsung Heroes," we at the Daily Prophet invite you to take a glimpse into the incredible and inspiring life of Annie Thomas. If you attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry post 1980 you may remember her name from your History of Magic textbook or from one of Professor Binns' more memorable lectures. If so, you might have an idea of the impact her work had and continues to have on Wizard-Squib relations. But odds are you didn't know she was the first Squib to join the famed Order of the Phoenix and to physically aid in combat against the Dark Lord. Or that her husband, Anthony Thomas, and brother, Laurie Bartholomew, were the first Slytherin members (unofficial) of the Order. So, with no further adieu, sit back, relax, enjoy a nice cup of tea, and enter into the world of Annie Thomas. [ _Special thanks to Bernard Bartholomew for agreeing to be interviewed for the first time for this piece.]_

Annette (Annie) Marie Bartholomew was born to English wizards Graham and Winifred Bartholomew in 1950. As the youngest child and first girl behind three older brothers, she was the immediate family favorite, and the immense talent she displayed from a young age only furthered her family's general fondness of her. Looking back on her childhood, her parents admitted that her talents were never overtly magical and that Annie's accolades must have resulted from her shear cleverness, brilliance, and determination as opposed to magical ability. But at the time, they were certain she was bound to do great things. It turns out, they were right, but not in the ways they assumed.

Annie's oldest brother Lawrence (Laurie) was six years her senior, and Bernard (who preferred Bernard to Bernie) was two years behind him. Tobias (Toby) was born a mere 11 months before Annie, and though all four siblings were known to be close, Annie and Toby were inseparable. By the time Annie turned 11 a strong but innocent rivalry had generated amongst the siblings. Laurie, a natural born leader and quick thinker, had surprised his Ravenclaw parents when he was sorted into Slytherin with little deliberation from the Sorting Hat. Since then he had made quite a name for himself at the school and was preparing to serve as Head Boy for his final year. Bernard was the least outspoken of the four siblings but could easily match any of them in a battle of wits and had so far managed to outdo Laurie's marks in all of his classes. He was more than looking forward his upcoming O.W.L.S. in the Spring. His sorting into Ravenclaw came as a relief to both parents. Toby was the oddball of the group and frequently disregarded thoughtfulness in favor of rash decision-making. Frustrating as this was to his parents, they had trouble faulting the boy because of his huge heart. He had been training all summer for Fall Quidditch tryouts, but everyone knew he was a shoe-in. Mr. Bartholomew often joked he could have made a fortune betting Toby was a Gryffindor, but no one was ever dumb enough to bet against him. He would often add that he would have lost it all, however, when it came to Annie.

It came as a shock to the entire family and anyone who knew the Bartholomews when Annie's 11th birthday came and went, and her Hogwarts letter never arrived. It's said that Graham owled the Ministry of Magic to see if the letter had simply been lost in the post and demanded they check again when he was told it hadn't been, though he never admitted to this publicly. To say Annie was devastated would be an understatement. She had already read the majority of the required first year textbooks, and she'd been stealing her brothers' potions books to make her own concoctions since she was six. (Laurie would never admit to it, but Annie had helped him master several potions over the years, and Toby was very open that Annie was the only reason he passed first year potions). It was true she hadn't been able to lift a broom yet or pass the potatoes at dinner without using her hands, but her parents had assured her (as well as themselves) that some witches and wizards exhibited those skills later than others and that she had already demonstrated more talent than half of the children her age. To their complete surprise and utter devastation, they had been wrong.

Mr. and Mrs. Bartholomew often described Annie as a perfect combination of her older siblings and yet uniquely her own person. She was inclined to academics like Laurie and Bernard, but unlike Laurie she had neither the desire nor the confidence to lead, preferring to solve problems on her own and behind the scenes like Bernard. The problem was that, like Laurie and Toby, once she had made her discoveries and reached her conclusions, she demanded to be heard. Perhaps her most defining trait, however, and the thing that forged her bond with Toby so deeply, was her heart. Both siblings, from a young age, displayed a strong passion for standing up for marginalized members of the wizarding world. Many will remember the MER (March for Elven Rights) events and the frequent Quidditch Boycotts for Gender and Age Equality that Toby and Annie organized during Toby's first year at Hogwarts. But Annie's heart for the overlooked manifested itself long before that. Winifred often recalled a story of five year old Annie demanding that 11 year old Victor Gallam, a friend of Laurie's, be allowed to attend Hogwarts even though he was a squib. "It was almost as if she had known all along," Winifred would say, "that in standing up for his rights, she was fighting for her own."

Not much is known about what happened to Annie Bartholomew from January 18th of 1961 to the following August, but it is widely accepted that she sank into a deep depression. One thing is certain though, the Bartholomew home was rather quiet for the first time in many years. The family of logicians and analyzers were finally met with a problem they could not easily solve, and this weighed heavily on them all. Then, in August, the summer before what would have been Annie's first year at Hogwarts, the family received devastating news about Victor Gallam. Victor's family had had a difficult time coping with their son's lack of magical ability and openly regarded him as a disappointment and embarrassment to the family name. Feeling he no longer belonged in the Wizarding World, Victor had run away to London at the age of 12. By the age of 14, he had severed all contact with his former community. The details surrounding Victor's death are largely unknown, other than that it was ruled a suicide. The fact that his childhood friends, including Laurie Bartholomew, would start their final year at Hogwarts a month after his death, however, was not overlooked. The impact that Victor's death had on the Bartholomew family was enormous, but it resonated with no one more than it did with Annie.

Annie frequently identified Victor's death as the catalyst which ignited the spark that changed her entire life. From then onward she refused to let her genetic composition make her feel inferior, insignificant, or lesser than her contemporaries. And she made it her life's mission to prevent others from suffering the same fate as Victor Gallam. A month after his death, Annie snuck onto the Hogwarts Express and marched straight into Headmaster Armando Dippet's office to inform him of her opinion on the matter. It was certainly one of her bolder moves and one she later described as being inspired by her hero, _My Life as a Squib_ author, Angus Buchanan. She never revealed who helped her get into the castle or through the password locked entrance to Dippet's office, but one could bet good money that Toby Bartholomew was involved. She also never revealed the exact words exchanged between herself and the Headmaster, saying that those words were 'just for me,' but she often regarded it as 'the most important and impactful conversation of my young life'. Annie was now faced with a very difficult decision: what to do next? In general, Mr. and Mrs. Bartholomew were supportive of their daughter's decisions, and promised to support her no matter what she chose, a fact Annie expressed frequent gratitude for. In the end she decided to attend Muggle grade school and University and used her academic talents to attain a degree in Social Work. She continued to live with her parents throughout the process and maintained her relationships with her siblings and her wizarding community, always intending to use what she learned to make a difference in the world she had come from.

She would finish her degree in 1970, but her assent to become a prominent figure in the Squib's Rights Movement occurred two years prior. In 1968 she was one of three keynote speakers for the first official Squib Rights Rally at the British Ministry of Magic. The speech lasted over twenty minutes, but many in attendance said they could have listened to her for a lifetime. You may recognize one of the more famous passages below, in which she references Victor Gallam, the boy whose life she so often realized could have been her own:

"At the age of eleven, Victor Gallam was no different than my brother Laurie. He had over 300 chocolate frog cards, and he always rooted for the Wimbourne Wasps. He had a pet Crup named Spiro that he trained to sit and rollover. His hero was Newt Scamander, and his favorite book was _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them._ Like Laurie, he dreamed of attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but Victor's genetics made it impossible for him to harness the magic necessary to become a wizard. He was not, however, incapable of contributing to the wizarding world, and he was certainly not lacking in value. Victor Gallam was not failed by his genetics; Victor Gallam was failed by his community, by _this_ community. We cannotcontinue to allow non-magical members of the wizarding world to feel like outcasts."

Annie was only eighteen when she delivered this speech. In it she likened being a squib in the wizarding world to being deaf or blind in the muggle world. She argued that just because a person's experience is different, that does not make their life any less valuable or their contribution to society any less important. She proposed that the ministry set up training programs, job opportunities, and temporary housing for young squibs instead of expecting them to fend for themselves at such a young age, especially for those lacking familial support. She emphasized the importance of integrating squibs into the wizarding world if at all possible and making sure they knew that their government and their wizarding community supported them and did not view them as any less than witches or wizards. She suggested that if a squib decided not to remain in the wizarding world, there should be clear frameworks set in place to assist in the transition to the muggle world, if such assistance is desired. The speech was revolutionary, and it solidified Annie's name as a leader in the Squib's Rights Movement, something she was certainly aware of and more or less accepted. Whether she liked the personal attention or not, however, Annie had certainly succeeded in bringing awareness to the Squib issue. She all but turned Victor Gallam into a martyr for their cause, and Squib's Rights Marches became a frequent occurrence at the Ministry over the next several years.

It should be noted that Eugenia Jenkins had replaced Nobby Leach as Minister for Magic a mere few months before the rally, and she played a large role in it's conception and encouraged Annie to be one of the key speakers. Jenkins was well known for her social justice work even before her stint as minister, but from '68 to '75 she was a force to be reckoned with. She worked tirelessly to improve the Squib experience, and many of the ideas she implemented were first suggested by Annie Bartholomew in 1968. The extent of the role Annie played in these reforms is unknown, as 1970 marked a major turning point in her life, as well as the entire wizarding world's: the beginning of the First Wizarding War. While the Equal Rights Movements of the late 1960's succeeded in raising up champions for many causes, they also resulted in many purebloods feeling as though their way of life was being threatened. This only fueled the fire Tom Riddle had been stoking for years, and thus the desire for change unintentionally instigated the fight against it. Big name leaders of the Equal Rights Movements became targets, and though many chose to stand their ground in the face of persecution, others chose to move more covertly, Annie Bartholomew being one.

Fearing for her family's safety with war looming on the horizon and a target painted on her back, Annie urged her parents to relocate the family to America. When asked if she would go with them she said she refused to abandon the work she'd given so much of her life for but couldn't bear to see her family be used against her. In the end only Bernard agreed to leave his position at Gringotts to travel overseas with his parents (he had sustained an undisclosed magical injury while at school that left him in 'no condition to fight' and felt he would better support the war 'financially rather than physically'). Laurie was currently serving as an auror for the Ministry, and Toby was the current seeker for the Wimbourne Wasps. Both refused to let their little sister stand alone and chastised her for even considering they would do otherwise.

The specific events of the next several years are hazy, but at some point all three Bartholomew siblings joined the Order of the Phoenix, though Laurie and his best mate Anthony were made unofficial members to protect their reputation amongst their fellow Slytherin brethren. Annie had met Anthony on a handful of occasions over the years, but he had never viewed her as anything other than Laurie's kid sister. But Annie was no longer a child. She was an educated woman with a quick mind, a passionate heart, and a newfound sense of bravery. Toby once said, "I always thought I was the brave one in the family, but watching her, a squib in a room of highly trained witches and wizards discussing magical warfare, holding her own and contributing valuable strategy to the conversation, I'm not sure I'd seen anything braver than that."


End file.
